On the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the event, the ChACO Contemporary Art Fair in Chile and its sponsor the Finlandia Vodka of Finland, announced the winners of the CHACO and Finlandia Award.
The call received more than 250 proposals by Chilean artists under the age of 40. Out of these, 37 artists were pre-selected. Cuban art curator and critic, Osvaldo Sánchez, presided over a jury formed by Ricardo Bruna, general director of Brown Forman for Latin America and Celia Birbragher, director of ArtNexus magazine.
The winner selected by the jury was artist Martin Kaulen for his sculpture—created with cane wood, industrial wood and Canson paper—entitled Estudio de Geometría Bambusoideae (Study of Bambusoideae Geometry), exhibited during the ChACO Contemporary Art Fair (Santiago, Chile). The jury also awarded Honorable Mentions to artists Felipe Mujica, for his work Como Si en El Mural en que Vivían no Existiera la Prisa o la Velocidad (As if Haste and Speed did not Exist in the Mural that They Lived In), and Julen Birke for her work Celdilla Hexagonal (Hexagonal Cell). The First Prize consists of a purse of 1,300,000.00 Chilean Pesos (approx. USD 2,576.00), a residency in Finland and the inclusion of the winning work in the Vodka Finlandia collection. The Honorable Mentions will receive a total of 900,000.00 Chilean Pesos (approx. USD $1,783.00) each.
More information is available at the ChACO Contemporary Art Fair homepage: http://www.feriachaco.cl/2013/08/ganadores-del-concurso-entre-chaco-y-finlandia-2013/